BMW did not try to convince Mark Webber to leave the Williams team at the end of last year, Mario Theissen has insisted.
Although Webber’s former teammate Nick Heidfeld made the switch to BMW-Sauber, Theissen reckons the Australian is not yet a ‘top-line’ grand prix pilot.
”He is certainly not yet top-line,’ the BMW motor sport director, referring to 29-year-old Webber, told Queensland’s Courier Mail.
”He needs some wins to become (that).”
Theissen, who fronted BMW’s decision to leave Williams and set up its own team at Sauber, added: ”It was clear we wanted to take Nick with us and that worked out.”
But he doesn’t even count Heidfeld, and his teammate Jacques Villeneuve who won the title in 1997, among F1’s ‘outstanding’ trio featuring the names Schumacher, Raikkonen and Alonso.
Theissen insisted: ”Behind those (three) there’s a group of drivers in which I would count Webber … and our drivers as well.”
gmmf1 dailyf1news.com
